Much Ado About MAHA: Fallout From New Report On Childhood Disease
I source my own food from a patchwork of places: I pick up a local community supported agriculture share for produce, as well as a small market that's just outside my door. Another source is the Brooklyn-based delivery service Farm To People, which I was introduced to through reporting on Forbes' 30 Under 30 food list back in 2020.
It's been inspiring to see what cofounders Michael Robinov and Anina von Haeften have accomplished since making the list. Their business has expanded to selling more than 800 (mostly seasonal!) items from a network of 150 farms within 300 miles of New York City. They have even taken on ways to reduce their packaging footprint, and have been rolling out deliveries with a refrigerated bag that is returned the next order.
Farm To People also makes the most of its space in the Bushwick neighborhood with a restaurant and bar in front of their distribution center. It hosts a vibrant community of regulars, chef-driven pop-ups and a popular speaker series that started earlier this year featuring food industry experts and Farm To People producers. It's been turned into a podcast called Know Your Food that just launched. The first episode features yours truly opining about all things chicken.
And now onto the highly anticipated MAHA Commission report on childhood disease, which was released last Thursday. Nestle describes it in her blog as 'one impressive report, forcefully written and tightly documented.' But there has, of course, been strife on all ends, which has been well-documented in Politico's Morning Ag as well as Helena Bottemiller Evich's Food Fix. There was reportedly a lot of behind-the-scenes lobbying for edits on the report in the days leading up to its publication, and in the days since, critics like the Farm Bureau, the American Soybean Association and the National Corn Growers Association have called on the president to 'correct inaccuracies' in the report. And while these representatives of some of the most powerful parts of the agriculture industry think the report went too hard on pesticides and chemical use, many environmentalists and other food systems advocates say some language was not strong enough.
Meanwhile, the shareholders of JBS voted to approve its dual-listing on the New York Stock Exchange. That means the world's largest meatpacker will begin trading publicly in the U.S., in addition to the B3 stock exchange in its home country of Brazil, as early as June 12.
There's a lot I'll be reporting on in the meantime. Enjoy the rest of your week!
— Chloe Sorvino
This is Forbes' Fresh Take newsletter, which every Wednesday brings you the latest on the big ideas changing the future of food. Want to get it in your inbox every week? Sign up here.
Farm To People
Here's a link to watch my conversation with Michael Robinov from Farm To People for their brand-new podcast. And be sure to check out the rest of their lineup so far, it's a super compelling mix of heavy hitters from across the food world: The next two episodes out are with Burlap & Barrel cofounder Ethan Firsch, and the one and only queen of food politics, Marion Nestle.
President Donald Trump arrives to speak on his policy to end tax on tips in Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 25, 2025.
No Taxes On Tips: President Donald Trump's campaign promise to end taxes on workers' tips is nearing the final greenlight. The change is included in the big House budget bill, which would be valid for 2026 to 2028. The New York Times has the latest on what it means for waiters and diners. The bill also includes provisions that will cut millions from food aid, as well as ones that stop clean energy tax credits and climate resilience funding.
Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images
B-A-N-A-N-A-S: Did you know that bananas are the world's most consumed fruit, or that bananas are the fourth-largest food crop grown globally after wheat, rice and corn? Two other interesting facts that I learned while reading a story in the Guardian: About 80% are grown for local consumption, and more than 400 million people rely on the fruit for as much as a third of their daily calories. But as new research highlighted in the story has found, nearly two-thirds of banana-growing lands in Latin America and the Caribbean 'may no longer be suitable' to grow bananas by 2080.
Via Rosa
IRL: I was happy to see Eater take on the trend of social media food influencers hosting expensive trips around the world and the tour companies like Via Rosa, Roads & Kingdoms and Modern Adventure that are behind the journeys. As Bettina Makalintal writes, 'Do you like a creator enough to follow them to another country? Would you pay thousands of dollars to hang out with them for a week? For some fans, that answer is an easy yes. It's a convergence of the parasocial relationships that the creator ecosystem fosters and the growing desire to find new ways to make friends—and it says a lot about how and why people travel today.'
The Price Of Milk
The documentary series The Price of Milk, is premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival on Sunday, June 8, with an additional screening on Thursday, June 12. I'd love to see you there! (And I hear Sunday is down to standby-only tickets.) It's my Tribeca Film Festival debut and I'm excited to see this important topic brought to life!
CHLOE SORVINO
Here's a standout from a Memorial Day Weekend barbecue: a whole grilled red snapper, wild-caught in Florida and purchased at Aqua Best, the seafood distributor to some of the hottest restaurants in New York City. They also have a retail shop in Chinatown that I frequent. (And they ship nationwide!)
Thanks for reading the 144th edition of Forbes Fresh Take! Let me know what you think. Subscribe to Forbes Fresh Take here.
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